


Wolves

by prettydamnlame



Category: Twenty One Pilots
Genre: also mentions Jenna Joseph
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-25
Updated: 2017-04-25
Packaged: 2018-10-23 21:37:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,063
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10727754
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/prettydamnlame/pseuds/prettydamnlame
Summary: The wolves are back at the door of Josh's mind. The boys have a quiet night in together.





	Wolves

They’re both so tired. Television interviews in the morning, radio interviews in the afternoon. There’s an hour’s break scheduled in between the radio interviews and a media gala in the evening. As soon as Tyler and Josh are alone, Tyler collapses. Literally.

His bandmate’s legs give way as Josh is reaching into the small fridge lined with cans of Red Bull and Coke and begins to cry softly where he’s fallen to the ground. Josh is exhausted; he’s running entirely on fumes at this point, but he swings into damage control immediately. Tyler is his first priority, always.

The drummer hunches down in front of the singer and pushes his hands beneath his friend’s armpits, pulling him up bodily, and placing him gently on the couch in the small lounge room they’d been allocated minutes earlier.

“I can’t do it.” Tyler’s sobbing. Josh is holding him close, but it’s not enough. “I’m fuckin’ done. Even if we did go tonight, I wouldn’t be able to string together a sentence. I wouldn’t be able to even  _stand up_.”

“Same,” Josh agreed, speaking directly into Tyler’s hair as his friend’s head was resting in the crook of the drummer’s neck. “Coffee’s the only reason I’m awake right now.” He hesitated momentarily, before admitting: “I haven’t been sleeping.”

Tyler lets out a hot, jagged breath, feeling awful. Usually he could tell when Josh was struggling, but he’d been so wrapped up in himself the past few days, he hadn’t even realised the wolves were back at the door of Josh’s mind. “We’ll stay in the same room tonight? It’s always better that way, right?” Even if he couldn’t hold himself together during the day, the singer could at least do this small thing for Josh at night: keep him company when the wolves wouldn’t leave him alone.

“And we’ll take tomorrow off so _you_ can sleep tonight.” Josh suddenly decided, speaking with a level of authority that surprised even him. Tyler had all but curled up into the fetal position in his lap and the drummer knew that this wouldn’t be an easy fix.

* * *

 Since cloistering themselves inside Josh’s hotel room that evening, the pair had ordered room service and drawn all the curtains. Tyler had taken a quick shower and already crawled into one of the double beds.

Stepping out of the shower, skin still raw from the hot water, Josh pulls on a hoodie they’d received from one of the radio stations they’d interviewed at earlier in the day. It’s an All Blacks hoodie. It’s cool: it’s all black (funny that), with just the silver fern logo and the words printed on the chest.

Once it’s hung on him, though, it’s immediately obvious the radio station had overestimated his and Tyler’s size: the hoodie was about two sizes too big for the either of them. The sleeves hung down past his wrists, the extra material flapping uselessly.

Knowing this would at least bring a smile to his best friend’s face, Josh pulls on some pyjama bottoms and exits the bathroom. Tyler’s sweet, bubbly laughter begins as soon as the drummer walks into the light of the bedroom. Josh adores the sound.

The singer pushes himself up against the headboard, into a sitting position for the first time that night, and waves Josh over to the double bed he has already chosen. Sitting on the edge of the bed next to his friend, Josh feels completely content as Tyler busies himself with folding up the hoodies’ long sleeves until they are sitting snugly above the drummer’s wrists. “Better?”

“Better.” Josh affirms with a thankful grin, and finally gets to begin the room service he and Tyler had ordered long before either of their showers.

* * *

 

When it comes time to turn off the light and attempt a good night’s sleep, Tyler lets out a low, melodious hum that stirs Josh out of the half-slumberous state he’d been in since lying down on the same bed as his best friend. Tyler had insisted they share; he knew that if Josh was having trouble sleeping, there was no point him even bothering to try the other bed. He’d sleep with Tyler next to him, at least for tonight.

“Lights on tonight?” The singer enquires gently.

Josh shakes his head slightly, fingers wrapped into the material of Tyler’s sleeves, as they had been since he’d laid his head on the pillow next to his friend’s. “No, s’fine t’night.”

“Okay.” Tyler replies just as quietly, apologising as he wrests away one sleeve out of Josh’s grasp to switch off the bedside light.

Darkness falls in the hotel room and it’s just the sound of the bustling city outside and the boys’ own breathing. Tyler returns his hand to Josh’s and the familiar brush of calloused fingers over his palms quickly curled into the material of his sleeve once more.

“Tyler.” Josh’s words were slurred with sleep, and Tyler was happy. That meant the wolves weren’t at the door and his best friend would be able to close his eyes in peace.

“Yeah?”

“D’you remember when’t s’always like this?”

The singer knew Josh was referencing the earlier years of Twenty One Pilots, a time that was almost five years ago now. They’d travelled and played and slept side-by-side for those years. Separate hotel rooms and separate dressing rooms were a relatively new development, and not one that either bandmate particularly enjoyed, but their level of success dictated that they have. “Of course.”

“S’mtimes miss it.”

“I miss it too.” Tyler replied with a long sigh. After particularly trying days on the road – as today had definitely been – the only thing that the singer wanted was Josh’s presence beside him accompanied by radio silence from the rest of the world. Besides Jenna, Josh was the only person who had the effect of complete and utter calm on him.

As if the drummer could read his thoughts, Josh’s whole body gave a violent twitch, and the fingers at Tyler’s sleeves tightened reflexively.

“Sleep, Jishwa. I’m right here.” The singer hummed soothingly.

Josh was a balm for Tyler like nothing else was when he was half a world away from his wife and his home. He would gladly spend the rest of his life keeping the wolves at bay for his best friend and bandmate if it meant things would always be this way.

**Author's Note:**

> Friendship is the most powerful force in the world. My best friend quiets my demons in ways that I never can.


End file.
